But we all need some nice words here and then. Last week 2 people sent me an email telling me nice words about my business and how it helped them with theirs. They made my day.

So here’s my advice: Tell people when you love their work.

Spend 2 minutes of your time to do it and you might make someone’s day.

On a lesser important note: I’ve found a name for this newsletter.

Drumroll….

🔥 The fireside.

Why??

Traditionally, a fireside is where people share their experiences and tell stories that don’t just have a temporary value but can be remembered for months and years. This is also the goal of this little experiment: to share something that will make you think for months and maybe years to come.

I can’t think of a better name for this newsletter (plus it’s got an emoji which is a HUGE plus).

🎯 “Decomplication” is a super interesting concept. As Nat Eliason puts it: “We’ve created and been sucked into a world of artificial complexity – one where topics are made more complex than they need to be in order to appeal to our biases and frustrations, and to help companies make more money.”

🔫 According to TheEconomist, Italy’s century-long experience with Mafia partially explains why it’s the only major European country that has never been hit by a terrorist attack.

😣 very long list of common misconceptions on Wikipedia. Visit it if you want to spend an afternoon realizing how many falsities you’ve propagated over the years (eg: Napoleone wasn’t actually short).

I’m now reading “Amusing ourselves to death” by Neil Postman. Despite being written over 30 years ago, this book is incredibly modern. As one of the reviews says: “The observations were made in a pre-internet era, and they’re 10x as relevant today. Nothing will do more to help cure your information addiction that the healthy dose of reality provided in these pages.”

Tweets that made me laugh

Feedback

If you made it this far, I’d love your feedback on what you’d like to see (or not like to see) in the next email digest. Just hit the reply button.